About Specifications

Overview

This article will describe the functionality of specifications and different types of image optimizations available in a basic specification. It will walk you through the following main sections:

• What is a specification?
• Specification Settings
• Types Of Specifications
• FAQs

What is a specification?

To get started using Pixelz, you must first create a specification. Specifications tell our editors exactly how your images should be edited. Each specification contains settings that define the specific steps the images go through and which editing tasks are completed. They are saved in your account and can be re-used for future orders.

Each specification has a price. This is the price you will pay for each individual image submitted on the specification. Your images must be submitted on a specification that contains settings that align with your needs and expectations.

Many of our customers like to create their own custom specifications, but we also offer preset specifications for people who sell on marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay. By using these preset specifications, we guarantee that your images will be Amazon or eBay compliant**.

Specification Settings

There are a huge number of settings available to you for fine-tuning your specifications to ensure your finished images meet your requirements. We divide settings into 3 main categories:

1. Standard Settings

Standard settings are those which are included in the base price. You can choose as many of these settings as you like without the specification price increasing. These are:

• Background removal
• Alignment & straightening
• Cropping
• Resizing
• Compression
• File format
• Color profile
• DPI
• File size
• Meta-data

2. Optional Add-ons

You can further customize your specifications with our range of add-ons. Add-ons incur an additional cost which is added to the base price.

These are:

• Invisible Mannequin
• Clipping Path
• Shadow
• Color Matching
• Retouch packages

3. Custom Settings

We have many more specification settings available behind the scenes that are not visible to you within your Pixelz account. Sometimes, this is because they are complex and, therefore, difficult to make comprehensible within a self-service interface. Sometimes, this is because they are rarely used, so they would clog up and complicate the user interface unnecessarily.

Be sure to reach out to your Professional Plan Specialist (during your trial) or our Customer Success Team via professional@pixelz.com (if you're a subscriber) if this is the case.

Types Of Specifications

There are three recommended ways to create your specifications based on where you plan to sell your products.

Marketplaces

If you plan on using a marketplace such as Amazon or eBay to sell your products, we would suggest using our Marketplaces option. This will assist you with ensuring your images will be compliant with your marketplace standards. You can learn more about how to use the Marketplaces option here.

Guided Setup Specifications

If you are a photographer and have some experience editing your own product images, then we would suggest using our Guided Setup Specification option to set up your specifications. This will allow you to customize your specifications using more advanced options, as well as selecting add-ons for your images. You can learn more about how to set up your specifications using the Guided Setup Specification option here.

Manual

If you are advanced with image editing and own an eCommerce site, we would suggest using our Manual option to set up your specifications. This will allow you to pick and choose from advanced image optimizations, as well as selecting add-ons for your images. You can learn more about how to set up your specifications using the Manual option here.

**The only images that we are unable to make marketplace compliant are images that are smaller than the marketplaces' minimum size standards. For example, we are unable to change a 200x200 pixel product image to a 1000x1000 pixel product image (by upscaling). If we did this, the final image would most likely be blurry/grainy and risk the possibility of being rejected by the marketplaces. 

FAQs

How to edit an existing specification?

To edit a specification, you simply navigate to the Specifications menu and click 'Edit' on the relevant specification.

You now have access to all settings on the specification and can adjust and save.

If there's a lock on the "Edit" button, this means that your specification has been locked, either because there's an order using this specification in your account, or it was last updated from our side. In this case, please contact the Customer Success team at professional@pixelz.com or cs@pixelz.com for any adjustments to the settings.

When and why do you need different specifications for different purposes?

When you submit an order on a specification, all of the images in that order will be edited according to the settings of that specification. 

If you have different requirements for some images (for example, file type, background, size, etc.), you must create a new specification and submit a separate order.

A simple rule of thumb is that you must create a specification for each unique set of requirements.

Retouch packages: Why should you stick to the products for which they were intended?

Retouching is a complex process that is highly specific to particular product types. The retouching required for a model's clothing, for example, is completely different from that required for a watch or a chair.

Retouching only works when we perform the right retouching tasks on the right kinds of products. Each retouch package contains a set of highly specific retouching settings. These settings define which steps the image goes through and which editors with which particular skills your images get assigned.

When you upload a product image to a specification containing a retouch package intended for a different type of product, the editing tasks your images are assigned to are often irrelevant and unnecessary. The result can be that you will see no change in your finished image.

If you are in doubt as to which retouch package is appropriate for your images, please reach out to our Customer Success team at professional@pixelz.com or cs@pixelz.com before you upload your order.

What to do if you can't find the options you need?

We have vastly more specification settings available behind the scenes than are available to you within your Pixelz account. Sometimes this is because they are complex and therefore difficult to make comprehendible within a self-service interface. Sometimes this is because they are rarely used so would clog up and complicate the user interface unnecessarily.

In any case, if you have specific requirements that you can't find options for in your account, these can often be met by our Onboarding Specialists tweaking a few knobs and dials in our system. We also have the option to upload specific example images to your specifications to ensure our editors understand your requirements.

Be sure to reach out to your Professional Product Specialist (during your trial) or Customer Success at professional@pixelz.com or cs@pixelz.com (if you're a subscriber) if this is the case.

Custom Onboarding

If you have a specific, custom specification requirement that we cannot meet within the standard options available plus a little bit of tweaking and adjusting, we might be able to meet your requirements by performing a custom onboarding.

We would need to assess whether it is possible to:

a) create the specification in our system and

b) guarantee image quality and consistency on an ongoing basis

Our Onboarding Specialists will make this assessment on a case-by-case basis. If we are able to meet your requirements, we charge a fee for this custom service.

Please reach out to Customer Success at professional@pixelz.com or cs@pixelz.com to discuss this option.

Can Pixelz Add Watermarks?

Yes, we can. At Pixelz, we offer adding watermarks to your images as a custom setup. However, we do not offer a watermark removal service at this time.

If you need to add a watermark to your images, please contact our Customer Success team at cs@pixelz.com and provide us with detailed examples/references so that we can add this setting to your specification(s).